to handle manufactured goods from china. it's also the largest port on the east coast. now, last year this port handled $208 billion in cargo. we're talking about products like furniture and also apparel. in 2002, we saw a west coast port lockout. estimates suggest that that cost the economy $1 billion a day. and as with the fiscal cliff, there's a political angle with the container cliff as well. business groups are asking president obama to use his emergency powers under taft hartley to prevent a strike. president bush did that back about ten years ago. while a strike will cause major disruptions, there are alternatives for transporting goods, rail and also air are options, but of course those options are not cheap. >> back in november, our members started putting contingency plans into place. the options were either divert containers to west coast ports, bring merchandise in earlier, use canada or mexico, or use air freight. but all of those come at a significant cost as well. >> now, the deadline is 12:01 tomorrow night. and i think it's safe to say that retailers are hoping we co
